updated 02:35 pm EST, Wed January 11, 2012

HTC Titan II gets early look

Earlier this week, Electronista had the opportunity to try the HTC Titan II first-hand. We'll gauge whether or not the addition of LTE and that massive 16-megapixel camera make for a better device. Read ahead for early impressions and whether or not it stands a chance among Android and iPhone alternatives.

The phone, as the name suggests, is in some ways a direct analog to the original Titan we saw just a few months ago. It still feels gigantic in the hand, bigger than the Galaxy Nexus, and is arguably too large given the width and the relative hit it brings when the 480x800 resolution is the same. HTC has swapped out the aluminum shell for soft-touch plastic, though, which we feel actually helps: the grip is now steadier and feels good in the hand, an important consideration when not everyone could comfortably wrap their fingers around both sides.

LTE was difficult to test for us in the indoors locations and extra-congested traffic of CES, but it stood a better chance of connecting than the 3G that at times was too overwhelmed to work. That may be an important consideration if on the fence for LTE, although we're concerned the 4G will still take a battery hit.

The 16-megapixel camera was also a challenge without the option of uploading the photos, although we can say that shots on-screen turned out reasonably well and were reasonably quick in coming despite being twice the resolution of before.

Will the Titan II give Apple or Google's partners reason to worry? We're not entirely convinced of that at this stage. HTC's upgrade certainly gives Android users the feature parity (and for the camera, superiority) they often look for, but the 1.5GHz single-core Snapdragon still looks to be a drag when dual-core is now the rule. iPhone sales have been largely immune to the specs race, however; software is what sells it, and without enough major differences since iOS and Windows Phone were each released, Apple may not have reason to worry.

1D10T5

The pocket cameras are getting creamed by the cellphone cameras. Why? The users can instantly share what they have taken. What's the use of a mobile phone camera if you are unable to upload the photo easily?

Those who don't understand lighting and can't take good pictures will still end up with junk images, just a bigger pile of them.